Techno Classica Porsche Essen: Per Eklund 930

Back from a week in Ireland, I’ve had a chance to reset and look through a few stories that got missed in the rush through Q1 2014.

I haven’t said much about Essen Techno Classica. This year’s fair was as fun as ever: some great finds dotted around and not all Porsche. Being up close to a works Lancia Delta Group A rally car was quite a treat, as was seeing some of the very high-end handcrafted machinery.

One Porsche stood out in the ‘for sale’ car parks: a 1983 Porsche 930/911 Turbo with Per Eklund as first owner. Very clean in Silver, I couldn’t find much to mark it down on: over-glossy wheel centres maybe if I’m OTT nitpicking. It had recently enjoyed some restorative attention, but everything was super pukka.

Just 57,000 kilometres and up for €67,000, it made my pick of best 911 buy on Day 1. We had currywurst for lunch, sitting on beer crates alongside the Turbo: definitely a high point of 2014 so far.

As all 930s start to climb in value, and early 3.0 Turbos and later blingy 5-speeds get tarted up and sold for silly money, the early ’80s models with low mileage and good provenance seem the ones to go for. Not much advance in an ’87 930: their purple period feels early ’80s to me, unless we’re talking Turbo SE…